Australia is a huge, complex country. Two months was not enough time.
Australians are as friendly as they come. Self-depreciation is a big part of the humor.
There is an equalitarian tradition. That tradition may be eroding. For example, we were told not to tip. Yet we saw plenty of tip jars. Old hands insisted they should be empty tip jars.
Like America, Australia is experiencing a huge inflow of non-white immigrants. A major debate seems to be how Australia will adjust from being modeled on British norms - or if it will or should...

Our last evening in Adelaide, I explored the train station casino. As expected, it had rows of horrible slot machines.
I don't mind a simple video poker machine, but these are the obnoxious multi-line machines resembling video games.
I chose not to play.
I watched punters lose big at roulette and baccarat. I didn't quite understand baccarat so I asked a pit boss to explain it to me. I told him I played craps and poker at home. "We had a craps table," he said, "but we took it out. Not enough players. Australian gamblers aren't smart enough...

A flight of less than an hour brought us from the green and rolling hills of Tasmania, to the flat and arid land of Victoria and its capital Melbourne. We love our hotel here, because we are in an apartment. We are doing a load of laundry as I write, a real treat for a traveller who moves every few days. It's hard to believe I am complaining about this, but we are a bit tired of eating out, even though the food has been great. It takes so long to find a restaurant and order when there's so much to see and the portions can be much too large....

When we walked in to the departure hall at Bangkok airport, my first reaction was a combination of dread and panic. The layout was eeriely like that of Delhi, where two years ago we were denied boarding for our flight to Australia. I could easily imagine a repeat denial.
It was complete relief to get boarding passes and check bags. Australia bound, at last.
Nevermind that less than an hour later I screwed up our itinerary by buying tickets from Melbourne to Sydney, bypassing Canberra. I'd wanted to see Canberra. What I didn't do was look at...

‘Marvellous Melbourne’ was coined in the 1880s when, following the gold rush, it became the wealthiest city (per capita) in the world . Today it’s on track to overtake Sydney in population size and it’s been voted ‘the world’s most liveable city’ for the seventh year running by The Economist.
For us it certainly lived up to its reputation. We relished the cultural and culinary delights, staying and spending time with Marianne’s school friend, Lou. You might notice a food and drink theme running through the pictures 𯘊.

We had a beautiful day driving along the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne. Our guide Adam was full of great stories and lots of interesting music from Australia. The day went very fast. We stopped at all the regular places along the road, seeing surfers, koalas iin the wild asleep, and beautiful seascapes. The Twelve Apostles rock formation was outstanding (we could only find eight). Loch Ard, site of the ship wreck, Was our favorite along the road. You could walk 99 steps down (and back up!) to the beach and sea caves and interesting rock...

We arrived in Melbourne around 4:00; took the Red Skybus into town. Traffic was bad. We got to our hotel around 6:15. We were given keys to the 24th floor, apt. 245; 183 City Road. We had to use the key in the elevator, and when we unlocked the apt. Door, there was a family there!!!! So we went back to the central office to discover we had been in the wrong building. Interesting, the key worked in both doors!
We went to the correct apartment. It is great, 24th floor, and a spectacular view of the city!!! It was warm on our balcony due to...

Arrived in Melbourne our first stop in Australia. Had to be up early with our passports to go through immigration. This is the first time since leaving LA. The ship has had our passports since we boarded and delt with any immigration. We had to pick them up and present them face to face to an immigration officer. Same as if you came in on an airplane, but in the terminal building on the pier. The officer asked me to remove my glasses and let us through.
Melbourne sure has a lot more skyscrapers than when I was here about 10 years ago on a...

History: just spent 3 days on the Tasman sea. As many refer to trans-Atlantic journeys as “hopping the pond”, Kiwis and Aussies refer to the Tasman Sea voyage as “crossing the ditch”. Melbourne is the Capital of Australia and is called the world”s most livable city. In 1847, the rush to find gold in the river and streams made it one of the world”s largest and wealthiest cities.
Melbourne the first of 7 stops in Australia. If this is an example of what we can expect it is going to be great. The Emu”s, leaping kangaroo and damn cute koala in...

Our tour group arrived Wednesday afternoon so we had the morning free to do and see what we wanted. Melbourne has a great metro. We stopped at a 7/11 close to the hotel and bought a Myki Card and took the 48 Tram to the center of town. First we were searching for a place to buy a Sim Card. To use our Verizon phone, it would have cost $10 a day. we could buy a Viacon Sim Card for our 17 days in Austria for $25 Australian ($18 US) with all the voice and data we need and to get wi-fi on the buses, as we move from hotel to hotel. Sometimes it...

Hello from Melbourne. We arrived at noon Monday the 8th, 4 hours late, to a warm, hazy day. We left LA 4 hours later than scheduled due to the storms in the East. Our flight was a Qantas- American Air. American had a plane full (180) which originated in New York to transfer to our flight and ours being the one flight to Melbourne each day, the powers that be, decided to wait for our New York "friends".
Our flights went okay. LA to Melbourne was very long (15hrs), but we had good movies to watch, stories to listen to, and the food was fine....

Christmas went in a bit of a blur. Boxing day was spent at the Melbourne Cricket Ground watching England struggle to play cricket. Fantastic ground and great atmosphere with nearly 90,000 in the stadium. Other days out included a trip to St Kilda beach, a walk in the Dandenogs and a great day out doing the Yarra Valley wine tour.
On the down side, I went for a very expensive swim in Wade and Patsy's pool as I had my iPhone in my pocket and was in there for about an hour before I realised! Oops - that will be a travel insurance claim then....